Cheese of the Week: Going Tuscan
Remember two weeks ago when I promised that my next submission for cheese of the week would be a good one? Well, after a week of tasty cheese adventures (which even included some honest-to-goodness green English cheese...that one's got a good story to it), I discovered not only one cheese of the week candidate that fit the "good cheese" category, but many! So it looks like we've got some delightful upcoming cheeses in store. I can't wait!
Scoparolo, a delicious little Tuscan cheeseBut I don't want to get ahead of myself. This week's cheese was chosen by my cheeseshop: the guy working there explained to me that Scoparolo was a Tuscan cheese and, more importantly, was quite delicious. I usually can't say no to that kind of recommendation, and I particularly trusted this guy since he had worked there for years, so I added the cheese onto my list of groceries for that day (I had simply gone to the shop to buy some Gruyere for a Thanksgiving day quiche, but in the end, I found myself picking up many more cheeses!). In fact, the cheese looked so tasty that I broke down half way home and broke off a little piece to try. I discovered immediately that my cheese wishes were coming true: third time's a charm.
Scoparolo is a rather simple cheese in the end--not nearly as complex as the Castelmagno, but I'd argue that it's just as memorable. It's a salty aged pecorino, and the flavor is a bit nutty and a bit dry. This is a great cheese to eat by itself, and we devoured the portion I got so fast that I had to buy another just to take its portrait (ooh, poor me :)!). This is the cheese to eat with a hunk of bread and a glass of wine as dinner: it doesn't need anything to accompany it, and if you're not careful, you'll eat the whole hunk of cheese in one sitting! The flavour is so good--not too strong (it didn't make me sneeze!), but not mild at all either. Perfect. How else can I describe it?
Mmm. In fact, I think I'm going to go have another piece now.
So there's a good cheese to go after (I couldn't find any articles on it at all, but I think it's somewhat popular. Antonello was saying he had tried it before)! And there will be more too...I'm having a lot of fun writing about one of my favorite foods!
-Jackie
7 Comments:
I am LOVING "cheese of the week". I totally want to do that once I move over there. (I could do it here but I don't think its as fresh) There are so many to choose from! I will need to put this one on my list. hehe
looks delicious! i'm so impressed with your cheese photography. you should keep it up, even after november is over...
Bring some home!
Absolutely gorgeous Jackie. Ok, that does it -- should the day ever arrive where you find yourselves at our doorstep, the menu will definitely center around none other than cheese! Maybe we could do a tasting complete with wine and a few other people in order to get a whole bunch of input!
thanks everyone! i'm glad you are enjoying these cheese-of-the-week posts! texas espresso: i was surprised to find that a lot of american cheeses are pretty serious quality--you could do a cheese of the week too :)! at some point i'd like to do a cheese-of-the-week meme so that i can see what other cheeses are out there :)!
paul: glad you like the photography. i feel like i don't really know what i'm doing!
dad: i'll bring some home...i just have to see if i can vacuum pack it.
rowena: okay! i'm coming then! :)
Good, we are waiting for you and Antonello.
Good job you are doing with those posts about cheeses. If i can give a suggestion, you should specify which wine is supposed to be drunk with any cheese ;-)
Dario
hey there. it's chelsea from parrrrr-ma. gotta' get that distinctive roll of the r (somewhere between french and german influence) of the parmense. of course you've tried parmegiano, si?! i haven't been following the cheese of the week, sorry. but, have you tried castelmagno from the very north of italy? it's a scary looking, but, interestingly delicious very dry cheese. look for that and post it if you can--a little challenge. hee hee...
great blog by the way!
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